Oops...

This is my twelve-year-old son's Cause and Effect essay he wrote today for school.  Unfortunately, it's a true story.

A little bit of background information - he does online public school and has to follow pacing guides for each subject to make sure he stays on track.  Each month, he's required to send in a work sample from each of his core classes.  As his learning coach, it's my responsibility to make sure everything runs smoothly.  Until now, I've done a pretty decent job of it.  [hangs head in shame]

A NOT-SO-LITTLE MISTAKE

One little mistake can cause big problems.  I was about to have my surgery and we thought we were almost ready for it.  We were really hurrying so I could get ahead on my schoolwork before my surgery.  During that same time, my brother broke his toe by dropping a marble rolling pin on it.  My mom was very, very stressed.  When the new Language Arts pacing guide came out, she threw away what she thought was the old one.  She thought wrong.  Oops.

I had my surgery and I got a week off to recover.  After the week, we had a ton of internet problems and couldn’t do much about it.  It took another week for us to get internet.  I couldn’t go anywhere for wifi until then because I was still recovering.  That caused me to fall behind in my schoolwork.

Another week passed.  By that time, I was healed enough to actually do stuff.  We managed to get some new internet which helped me catch up to the old pacing guide.  The morning my work samples needed to be turned in, my mom checked the requirements for the March Language Arts work sample to make sure I met the requirements for the essay.  That’s when we discovered the essay I wrote was the WRONG ONE!

The cause and effect essay that was actually the work sample for March was scheduled for April on the pacing guide we had.  We checked the pacing guide we had with the one that was sent before my surgery.  Then we realized my mom had thrown away the wrong pacing guide.  We freaked out.  A lot.

With only one day to write this essay, we realized I had the perfect topic – how accidentally throwing away the wrong pacing guide caused a big problem.  We learned to double check the pacing guide whenever there’s a new one because we do not want this happening again.  I may not be so fortunate next time.